Oct. 9, 2006

The inshore bite has been hot! Most of the action has been seatrout when fishermen have been able to find a suitable drift and clean water. Big tides and a northeaster have made fishing difficult. Despite tides close to and over 9 foot fishermen have still caught fish. Seatrout can be found schooling and on the move. Not all the seatrout are schooling but there are good schools of seatrout on the move. Muddy water, debris strong currents can all make fishing difficult. Catching a few fish on a big tide is an accomplishment! Some fisherman have managed to bring in good catches of seatrout despite the conditions. Fishing tides around the 9 foot range is problematic. Usually the best is around the top or bottom of the tide. Drops that can work well in a smaller tide range might be ineffective on higher tides. A northeaster can also reduce the amount of fishable water. Like any day look for suitable conditions. A few distress mullet can give away seatrout or redfish. A mullet jumping out of the water at unusual angles might be giving some nice fish near by. I call these mullet ” unhappy mullet” as oppose to happy mullet. A happy mullet will jump in straight lines. One young student asked Dr. Ed Chin (former head of the University of Georgia Oceanography School), why do mullet jump? He laughed and said somethings you’re going to have to ask good Lord. It is wonderful that are so many mysteries that even something so seemingly simple as a mullet jumping isn’t completely understood. A distress mullet or unhappy mullet is a little easier to understand. This is fleeing fish. The mullet is swimming close to surface and trying to avoid a predator.

There are still lots of fetish fish or trash fish in local waters so take plenty of bait. Anticipate very challenging fishing conditions until tides lessen, this be on Thursday ( the good tides after the Spring tides). Fish will likely be hungry and on the move. The best bite has been towards the sounds. Spring tides blow the shrimp out the creeks and river. Concentrating on the sounds during big tides is usually more productive than heading up river. As tides fall from the 9 foot range to the 7 range fishing should pick up. Fisherman during the fall might find good fish on literally any spot along marsh. Fall means fishing, particularly inshore fishing!